Tunn300's 2010 Reads

[frankie]

I know when I joined the forums and saw peoples TBR piles at over 100 books long I thought how is that possible. Now I know!!

 

And just by coming back here to see what you've replied and noticing a review and reading it my wishlist is getting longer again...

That Dan Rhodes book does sound really intriguing and it's even in the library, I just might have to go and get it next week. Thanks for the review

[tunn300]

And just by coming back here to see what you've replied and noticing a review and reading it my wishlist is getting longer again...

That Dan Rhodes book does sound really intriguing and it's even in the library, I just might have to go and get it next week. Thanks for the review

 

I highly recommend it. Was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it and have already been on RISI again and got another of his books - Anthropology.

[poppyshake]

Great review , I'm looking forward to reading it now. I too saw Dan advertised on the back of 'Books Quarterly' and was intrigued enough to put 'Gold' on my wishlist at Amazon and Mum bought it for me for my birthday.

The book I'm reading at the mo' is 500 pages long and fairly hard work so 'Gold' sounds ideal for my next choice.

[tunn300]

Great review , I'm looking forward to reading it now. I too saw Dan advertised on the back of 'Books Quarterly' and was intrigued enough to put 'Gold' on my wishlist at Amazon and Mum bought it for me for my birthday.

The book I'm reading at the mo' is 500 pages long and fairly hard work so 'Gold' sounds ideal for my next choice.

 

I think it will make an ideal break after a long book that has been dragging. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did and will look out for your review.

[tunn300]

Well have had a really busy week so far and not much reading done. I am about 60 pages into the Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. It has been ok so far but i think it is still laying the foundations for the rest of the story. Hopefully after my final parent's evening tonight I can crack on and get more into the book.

[tunn300]

Am on the home straight now with the Heretic's daughter and have about 100 pages to go. At the moment it hasn't quite lived up to my expectations but hopefully it is building to a great ending.

[tunn300]

 

Synopsis - Amazon

This is a spellbinding story of family love, courage and betrayal at the time of the Salem witch trials.Martha Carrier was hanged on August 19th 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, unyielding in her refusal to admit to being a witch, going to her death rather than joining the ranks of men and women who confessed and were thereby spared execution.Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and wilful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. In this startling novel, she narrates the story of her early life in Andover, near Salem. Her father is a farmer, English in origin, quietly stoical but with a secret history. Her mother is a herbalist, tough but loving, and above all a good mother. Often at odds with each other, Sarah and her mother have a close but also cold relationship, yet it is clear that Martha understands her daughter like no other.When Martha is accused of witchcraft, and the whisperings in the community escalate, she makes her daughter promise not to stand up for her if the case is taken to court. As Sarah and her brothers are hauled into the prison themselves, the vicious cruelty of the trials is apparent, as the Carrier family, along with other innocents, are starved and deprived of any decency, battling their way through the hysteria with the sheer willpower their mother has taught them.

 

Review

I read many good things about this book on this forum and was very kindly let into Charm's book-ring. I have always had an interest in this part of history and in the Salem trials specifically.

 

I found the book hard going to start with and it took me a while to adjust to the authors style and pace. This is a book that has a lot of detailed and rich description and whilst this is always welcome I felt sometimes there was a little too much, which disrupted the flow of my reading.

 

The first half of the book is spent setting up the background for what follows and again is very detailed in all that happens. I found this interesting but did not really get into the book until the arrest of Sarah's mother with about 100 pages to go.

 

This was the part I was looking forward to, hopefully finding out more about the trials themselves, however I found that this was the one area the author rather rushed over. After reading I do not feel I learnt anything new about the trials and still feel the need to research more.

 

The characters were excellently created and well developed throughout the book and I felt the ending was a pleasing one.

 

Overall I did enjoy the book and am glad I read it but it is not something I will re-read.

 

7/10

[tunn300]

Am planning to start The FIve People You Meet In Heaven later this evening. When in town earlier I popped into the Oxfam books and music shop we have. They had 3 books for �5 so picked up a few bargains but when I got to the counter I discovered that the shop is closing in mid June, gutted.

 

I managed to get:

Too Close To Home - Linwood Barclay - excellent condition

A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka - looks brand new

Death Trip - Lee Weeks - Good condition.

 

Am pleased with my haul as have been meaning to add books by Barclay and Weeks after reading great things about them on the crime forums and have always fancied a Lewycka book but never got round to buying one.

 

Just disappointed now I know the shop is going.

[poppyshake]

I loved 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian' .. very funny .. hope you enjoy it .

[tunn300]

 

Synopsis - Amazon

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in the toil of his father before him, fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. Then he dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life. Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer is as magical and inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

 

Review

I read many good thing about this book and managed to join the book-ring on these forums. I read the book in two sittings 150 pages in the first 50 in the second. It is very easy to read and so easy to lose track of time when reading it.

 

I have to say I thought the book was excellent. The whole concept of the book is very interesting and the way the author draws so many little stories together to map out a life is amazing.

 

I really enjoyed the character of Eddie and felt different emotions towards him throughout the story. I really like how the author brings in people Eddie felt he knew so little about and showed how they were significant in his life. Although the book is fairly short I still felt I learnt a great deal about his life and even though he himself describes it as a boring life we the reader can see how amazing it actually was.

 

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to others.

 

9/10

[tunn300]

 

Synopsis - Amazon

Dan Rhodes' first book Anthropology consists of 101 stories, each around 120 words in length, and all working highly surreal variations around a single theme: relationships. A simple enough idea which is superlatively executed--the range and inventiveness of the texts within the strict format reveal a writer of formidable imaginative powers, able to move with ease from wit to farcical comedy to genuinely heartfelt evocations of loss and love. Each story is almost like a condensed novel, a distilled narrative that focuses on a particular moment, gesture, or conversation, humourously unravelling the fragile structures and barely disguised inequalities that characterise the d�tente between the sexes.

 

Review

As stated in an earlier review I saw Rhodes advertised on the back cover of the latest books quarterly magazine and decided to read one of his books. Luckily I picked up Gold, which was excellent. I then decided to get more of his work and got this next of RISI.

 

I have to say I am thankful that this was not the first Rhodes I read as it is very disappointing and I would probably have not bothered reading any more of his work.

 

The book is a collection of 101 short stories about love. There are a few gems in there that made me laugh but I found most of them dull and rather odd, but not in a good way like his writing in Gold.

 

I will definitely be reading more of his work as I think his other two books are novels and I will enjoy them more. I certainly don't recommend anyone to be introduced to his writing in this way as it is so poor compared to his other novel I have read. On a plus point I read it in about a day as it is so short.

 

5/10

[tunn300]

Right as my last few books have been book-ring books and i felt I had to get them read and passed on I now have a free choice on what to read next and.... don't have a clue. Am going to stare at my TBR shelf until something jumps out at me.

[poppyshake]

Giulia also said she hated 'Anthropology' .... she got a free copy with her Waterstones Quarterly (if you had got one you wouldn't have had to buy it to find out you hated it .. I didn't get one with my magazine either).

I've just received 'Timoleon Vieta Come Home' from Amazon and I'm looking forward to it even though I know it's a sad one (I can cope with that .. I'm a big girl now ). I also looked at 'Little Hands Clapping' when I was in Waterstones on Saturday .. it's still in hardback at the moment though and I like to get paperbacks when possible.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they will be as good as 'Gold' (didn't mean that to be a pun!) .. and that it wasn't just a one-off.

[frankie]

Giulia also said she hated 'Anthropology' .... she got a free copy with her Waterstones Quarterly (if you had got one you wouldn't have had to buy it to find out you hated it .. I didn't get one with my magazine either).

I've just received 'Timoleon Vieta Come Home' from Amazon and I'm looking forward to it even though I know it's a sad one (I can cope with that .. I'm a big girl now ). I also looked at 'Little Hands Clapping' when I was in Waterstones on Saturday .. it's still in hardback at the moment though and I like to get paperbacks when possible.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they will be as good as 'Gold' (didn't mean that to be a pun!) .. and that it wasn't just a one-off.

 

A good pun I want to buy Little Hands Clapping as well, but as much as I don't mind hardbacks, I just don't want to spend 12 euros on a book I wonder how long it takes for the book to be available in paperback...?

[tunn300]

A good pun I want to buy Little Hands Clapping as well, but as much as I don't mind hardbacks, I just don't want to spend 12 euros on a book I wonder how long it takes for the book to be available in paperback...?

 

I also prefer books in paperback and don't really want to spend �10 on Little Hands Clapping. As yet though there is no release date for the paperback on any of the book websites I have looked at.

 

The best part about Anthropology was the extract from Little Hands Clapping at the end of the book. It definitely looks written in a similar vain to Gold and already had me wanting to read on.

 

Let me know what you think of Timoleon Vieta Come Home Poppy as that may have to be my next purchase.

[poppyshake]

Yes I will definitely .. should be reading it after my next book.

[tunn300]

 

Synopsis - Amazon

Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face-to-face with a beastly creature which gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it). The point is: they saved her life. So when one of the bloodsuckers asks for a favour, she obliges - and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave, and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier said than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly . . . The Sookie Stackhouse books are delightful Southern Gothic supernatural mysteries, starring Sookie, the telepathic cocktail waitress, and a cast of increasingly colourful characters, including vampires, werewolves and things that really do go bump in the night.

 

Review

After enjoying the True Blood Tv series I decided to try the first book in the series and enjoyed that enough to buy the rest in a box set. This is book 2.

 

I enjoyed this book much more than the first book in the series for a number of reasons. Firstly I think we got to know the characters a lot more in this book and they are now much more rounded. I also think that Eric is a very interesting character and am glad he was much more involved with this story.

 

Secondly as I have only just started watching series 2 of the show I had no idea what would happen and this time found the suspense built nicely

to the showdown between the vampires and the fellowship of the sun

. I criticised the first book for its lack of suspense but looking back now I think that may be more to do with me already knowing the outcome.

 

Finally I think the plot was generally just more interesting in this book and Harris's writing style has improved. I like the two opposing sides that have been drawn and that I imagine will form the basis of future books.

 

My only problem with the book was

I felt it built very nicely to the showdown in the house with the vampires and Fellowship and felt it could have ended pretty quickly after that. I thought the searching for Lafyette's killer was a bit tacked on and not done nearly as well as it could have been given more time.

 

 

Overall though a big step up from the first book and I look forward to reading the next in the series, though may leave it a little while.

 

8/10

Edited March 13, 2010 by tunn300

[tunn300]

After looking at my TBR bookshelf for about 15 mins and reading some blurbs again I have decided to go back to my TV book club 2010 books. Have read 4 so far but have read 6 other books since my last. Am going to now read The Way Home by George Pelecanos.

 

He is one of the writers of The Wire, which I tried to get into but really could not get to grips with it. Hopefully I will enjoy his writing more in this. Have had 3 good books and one slightly disappointing read from the book club books so far, lets hope this is another goodey.

[tunn300]

Has been a slow reading week for me as work keeps getting in the way. Have only managed one more chapter of The Way Home so far this week. Will definitely get some good sessions in over the weekend and aim to finish this book. Roll on the weekend.

[poppyshake]

Yes definitely, only I'm going to my Mum's this weekend and though I always take my book with me it's next to impossible to read anything ... she usually has the TV on in one room and radio on in the other .. and then when you go to bed she's crashing about with the dishwasher or hoovering! Ah still, it's lovely to see her.

 

I've read 'Timoleon Come Home' now Tunn.

 

Review here

[tunn300]

Have somehow managed to add 5 new books today and it is only half eight. In tescos picked up 3 bargains in their reduced section:

 

Shatter - Michael Robothom - Read in the crime thread others have been enjoying this and was looking to get it anyway - �1

The Drowning Man - Michael Robothom - In reduced section also �3

Bait - Nick Brownlee - Never heard of the book or author but blurb and first few pages sound good. �1.75

 

Then picked up 2 for �7 at Asda:

 

The Crucifix Killer - Chris Carter - His first book and looks very interesting.

The Book of Lies - Brad Meltzer - Never read any of his previous books but thought this sounded particularly good.

 

Damn you cheap books! I will never, ever get to the end of my TBR pile.

[tunn300]

 

Synopsis Amazon

Hidden beneath the floorboards in a house he's remodeling, Christopher Flynn discovers something very tempting-and troubling. Summoning every bit of maturity and every lesson he's learned the hard way, Chris leaves what he found where he found it and tells his job partner to forget it, too. Knowing trouble when he sees it-and walking the other way-is a habit Chris is still learning. Chris's father, Thomas Flynn, runs the family business where Chris and his friends have found work. Thomas is just getting comfortable with the idea that his son is grown, working, and on the right path at last. Then one day Chris doesn't show up for work-and his father knows deep in his bones that danger has found him. Although he wishes it weren't so, he also knows that no parent can protect a child from all the world's evils. Sometimes you have to let them find their own way home.

 

Review

This is another of this years TV book club best reads. I was a little apprehensive before starting as although this book is in a genre I usually enjoy the author is a writer on the TV series The Wire, a show I really could not get into.

 

I have to say that whilst this book is pitched primarily as a thriller I think that actually takes a back seat to the themes of the juvenile detention system in the USA and of a family failing to communicate. The thriller part only really kicks in during the last third of the book.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I feel it deals well with issues of communication between sons and their fathers and highlights what can go wrong when these break down completely. I found the first half of the book captivating and really enjoyed learning about Chris's past and how his emotions and views on things change as he goes through life. All of the central characters are really strong and their actions totally believable.

 

The plot was very fast paced and constantly had me wanting to read just a bit more and i found Pelecanos's writing style very engaging and easy to read. After watching the book club show about this book I have discovered he is a man who has been here and done this before and this shows in his writing.

 

My only slight criticism is the ending is fairly predictable and has been used in many thrillers before, but this certainly did not spoil the book for me at all as it is so much more than a simple thriller.

 

Definitely check this book out if you enjoy a good thriller and you will certainly get it along with the extra dimensions of family relationships and an insight into the American juvenile detention system.

 

9/10

Edited March 21, 2010 by tunn300

[tunn300]

Am just over 100 pages into Bait by Nick Brownlee. Have read a little each night this week. So far am finding it a bit tough going as there are so many characters and so much action it is hard to keep track of everything. In the part I read last night a couple of the strands began to link together so there is hope yet. Will hopefully finish this over the weekend.

 

Am going on hols later next week for a long weekend and am already thinking about what books to pack to entertain me on a long ferry crossing!

[tunn300]

 

Synopsis - Amazon

Ex-Flying Squad cop Jake Moore?s career was cut short by a bullet; ten years on, he runs a game fishing business that is about to go to the wall. But old habits die hard, and when cerebral Mombasa detective Daniel Jouma - seemingly the only good policeman in a city where corruption is king - asks for his help in solving a baffling murder case, he cannot help but become involved. The mangled body of a street criminal has been washed up on the beach and a fishing boat skipper and his bait boy have blown up in the water. When Jake and Jouma look closer, they discover that not only are the murders linked, but the conspiracy surrounding them stretches far beyond the reaches of Africa - and has deadly implications for everyone concerned. This gripping crime thriller strips away Kenya?s tourist glitz and exposes the country?s dark and treacherous underbelly beneath.

 

Review

I picked up this book in the reduced section at my local Tesco store. I thought the blurb was interesting and the story is set in a part of Kenya I have been fortunate enough to visit.

 

The story centres around two main characters, Jouma the Kenyan detective and Jake and ex scotland yard officer now running a fishing buisness in Kenya. This is the first book in a series of (currently) 3 other books involving these characters.

 

I found the first 100 or so pages of this book pretty tough going. There were lots and lots of characters and storylines all happening at once an I did find it hard to keep track. This was not helped by me just reading a few chapters each night before bed. However once the stories began to tie together and the characters were set i found it a really gripping read and read the final 200 pages in just 2 sittings today. All of the stories and characters fitted together very nicely, if a bit conveniently and I couldn't put the book down.

 

The two main characters are well drawn out with good back stories and are very believable. The writing style is very quick paced with lots of short, sharp chapters in a James Patterson sort of way. I found at first that the author was not really giving us much of an insight into this area of Kenya but we learn more and more as the story goes on and it is clear he has done his homework.

 

In the end I really enjoyed this book and urge others to give it a go and stick with it through the first third. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series when I can get around to getting the books.

 

8/10

[Esiotrot]

Your review of The Way Home by George Pelecanos has convinced me I need to read it - added to my wish list!

k x